[6] SYL supported Greater Somalia with Harar being the capital and a combined Harari-Somali representatives were commissioned to reveal this proposal to the U.N office in Mogadishu.

By 1948, following an official visit to the territory by the Four Power Commission, the SYC was a well-structured political unit,[8] Abdullahi Issa was elected as its secretary general and renamed itself as the Somali Youth League (SYL) and began to open offices not only in Italian and British Somaliland, but also in the Ogaden and in the Northern Frontier District (NFD).

Although the SYL enjoyed considerable popular support from northerners, the principal parties in British Somaliland were the Somali National League (SNL) and National United Front (NUF), mainly associated with the Isaaq clan, and the United Somali Party (USP), which had the support of the Dir (Gadabuursi) and Darod (Dulbahante and Warsangali) clans.

[12] Before the Italians returned to Somalia, the SYL held a major summit in order to formulate a common policy and unified attitude toward the Trusteeship government.

[13] The first half of AFIS's decade long rule would be marked by animosity and conflict between the Italian authorities and the Somali Youth League.

These attempts to marginalize the league would lead to demonstrations across the country which were strongly repressed by the government, who had at the time come to decision not cooperate or concede to the SYL's plans.

Five years from then, in general elections held in March 1969, the ruling SYL led by Mohammed Ibrahim Egal returned to power.

Official celebrations are organized throughout the country on this Somali Youth Day to honour the SYL's members and their key role in the nation's path to independence.